Restricted keyway locks are door locks that stop anyone copying your key without your say-so, because key blanks are sold only to the locksmith on record. Our most common call: an ex-employee kept a key, and nobody knows how many copies exist. King Locksmith and Doors Inc. installs and rekeys them across the DMV, licensed, insured and bonded for 25 years.
Locksmiths call this a restricted keyway: the keyway is the shaped slot your key slides into, patented or contract-restricted so blanks reach only the locksmith on record. Most add a sidebar, a small bar inside the plug that releases only when the key carries extra cuts a standard machine cannot make. Behind the cylinder sits the lever, deadbolt or mortise body already on your door.
We install three formats: 6-pin key-in-lever cylinders, mortise cylinders, and small format interchangeable cores, the keyed section a control key removes in seconds. Master keying lets one key open every door you manage. District of Columbia office suites run them every day.
You stop wondering who holds a copy of your key, because a new blank cannot be cut without your signature on file. A standard key, even one stamped do not duplicate, copies at any hardware store; a restricted blank cannot.
Because the cylinders fit the levers and deadbolts already on your doors, you gain key control without replacing a single lock. Interchangeable cores rekey in seconds, and master keying puts one key in your pocket for the whole property. That is the upgrade worth booking.
We install these where keys change hands: the office suite that turns over staff, the church office with the safe, the server room, the door between shop floor and stockroom, apartment mechanical rooms and pharmacy stock closets across Northern Virginia.
They are the wrong choice for a door that never needs a key: a hallway restroom wants a privacy function, and a door that stays open all day wants a passage latch. Not sure which fits? We survey it free.
Tell us your door, your key count and your budget. We match the restricted keyway system from stock we trust, then install it that visit.
Five restricted key systems earned their place on our trucks by keeping blanks out of the wrong hands: patents that hold and cores we stock.
Medeco M4 keys carry angled cuts a standard machine cannot make, and its cylinders fit most commercial levers, so key control arrives without replacing locks.
Mul-T-Lock MT5+ uses a pin inside a pin plus a sidebar, and its cylinders come in mortise and lever formats, so we retrofit any door.
Schlage Primus XP adds a sidebar, the extra check inside the plug, to a familiar Schlage cylinder, so it keys into your existing Schlage system.
Abloy Protec2 runs on rotating discs rather than pins, which resist weather and picking, so we recommend it for gates and exterior doors in rain.
The key snaps and half stays in the plug, the rotating part of the cylinder: restricted blanks are hard and thin, so bent keys break. The whole cylinder spins with the key: the retainer, the clip holding the cylinder in the lever, has loosened. Your last key is lost: no hardware store stocks the blank.
We check the retainer first, then the plug for a broken blade, then your authorization before cutting a key. Locked out? Our mobile units respond 24/7. Call (240) 345-1455 in Maryland or (202) 800-2622 in Washington DC and NOVA.
A broken key comes out with an extractor, a thin hook slid beside the blade, and we cut a key from the code card. A spinning cylinder needs a new retainer clip. A lost key never means a new lock: we repin the plug so the old key dies and cut new keys under your signature.
Replacement fits when the patent expires or you want one system across buildings. We match cylinder format, backset and finish so the new cylinder drops into your existing lever or mortise body, no drilling. Our in-house door expert fixes alignment and tests every key that visit. Estimates are free.
Every uncontrolled key copy is a door you no longer control. Call (202) 800-2622 right now or book restricted keyway lock installation online today.
Restricted keyway locks secure office suites and server rooms, but every door has its match. Browse our lock type resources below to see each function, its applications and our services.
Straight answers from King Locksmith Technicans to on restricted keyway Locks questions customers ask us most.
(240) 345-1455
No. Retail shops cannot get the blank; we cut copies only against your signature card.
The stamp is a request any cutter can ignore; a restricted keyway makes copying impossible.
Yes. We rebuild the system around your door schedule, keeping your levers.
Almost always, since the change is inside the cylinder. Our NOVA survey confirms.
